


When the War is Over

by GalahadWilder



Category: MCU, Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Post-Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 10:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11667183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: Steve doesn't know that he's in love with Bucky Barnes. But, with the Avengers' help, Sharon Carter is determined to make sure her boyfriend gets his boyfriend back.





	When the War is Over

*Very mild NSFW*

Everybody knew that Steve Rogers was in love with Bucky Barnes. Everybody except, apparently, Steve himself.

Sharon realized it first–that he didn’t realize his own feelings for his oldest friend. They were cuddling in bed together in a hotel in Munich, during one of the rare times when they could meet without Steve getting caught and arrested and Sharon could sneak away from her job for a few hours. They’d had some wilder nights, of course, but this one was quiet. Made Sharon think back to all the days after Project Insight and before the Accords, when Steve was good and right and THERE and they had time to fall in love slow.

Steve sighed. “I’m wish we could have more time together than we do,” he said, brushing her hair away from her face. “It feels like I’m letting you down.”

Sharon chuckled and kissed him on the nose. “It’s okay, sweetie,” she said. “I always knew I’d have to share you with James.” She ran her fingers across his scalp, and he closed his eyes in rapturous pleasure at the massaging feeling. “I just figured he’d be in bed with us instead of in a cryo-tube a continent away.”

At that, Steve opened his eyes wide, his tongue probing at his teeth for a moment before he could find the words. “Sharon,” he said, “are you in love with Bucky?”

She stared at him for a moment, incredulous. _Does he not know?_

“No, babe,” she said, stroking his chin. “You are.”

***

About a month later, Steve finds Natasha in Bucky’s cryo-room. He has no idea how she got there–not even Scott has been able to sneak past the Dora Milaje yet, even at a millimeter tall–but he doesn’t question it. She’s Natalya Ilyanovna Romanoff. If anyone could get into T'Challa’s palace without anyone noticing, it’s her.

She’s staring at Bucky, the way he sometimes sees Wanda stare at pictures of Vision, or Sam of Riley. Something that they had that was lost.

“I tried to seduce him once,” she says without preamble. She doesn’t even turn around, doesn’t acknowledge Steve’s presence in any way. “Back before I knew any better. Back before I knew that… that wasn’t what you do with your friends.”

She glances back at Steve, but he doesn’t say anything. He just keeps listening.

She turns back to Bucky, presses her fingers against the glass. “He didn’t go for it. At the time, I didn’t know why. But later… I’d see him, looking at the lab techs. He looked at the men the way the men looked at photos of their girlfriends, or their wives.” She breathes out, letting the air from her lungs frost the glass on this side. “He was my big brother, in a way. He was the only family I had back then.” She turns back and walks toward Steve, puts a hand on his shoulder. “You’re my family too, Steve. I haven’t figured out how to fix him yet, but… I’m looking. For both of you.”

Steve says nothing, only closes his eyes and lets a few tears drip down his cheek. Before he can open them again, Natasha is gone.

Well, not quite gone. “He loves you too, you know,” her voice echoes from the vents.

***

The package arrives at the Wakandan royal palace without warning, and the Dora Milaje flip out. It has no markings, no return address, just Steve’s name written in fountain pen. They send Sam to get Steve.

He comes down and sees the package, then waves them off because he’d recognize Tony’s handwriting anywhere. He takes it someplace private and rips open the brown paper, and pulls out… a diary. HIS diary. From 1939.

There’s a note attached. There’s no apology, of course, because Tony did what he thought was right and so did he, and they can’t really blame each other for that. “Hey, Steve,” it says, “remember that spider-kid from the airport? He dropped by where your apartment used to be and found this. Asked me to send it to you. P.S.: see attached.”

The “attached” turns out to be a photo of an engagement ring on what is undoubtedly Pepper’s hand, and Steve smiles at that for a moment. The boy that might as well have been his nephew is finally growing up. Making a family, like he’d always wanted.

He flips open the diary and starts reading. Every entry mentions Bucky in some way, and Steve finds himself agape at the naked, raw romance that just BLEEDS from every page. How clearly in love with Bucky he was. How clearly in love with him Bucky was. How did he not see it?

When T'Challa finds him a few hours later, still in the same room, still reading the diary, he’s laughing quietly to himself as tears run down his face.

***

The next time he runs into Sharon is in Seoul, and this time they don’t spend any time in bed. They end up at a coffee shop, helping Steve come to terms with himself.

“It just seems… selfish?” he says. “To want both of you.”

Sharon smirks. “So you’re fine that you’re in love with him?”

Steve closes his eyes and takes a sip of his coffee. “Honestly, at this point I can’t think of any other way to be.”

“It’s not as bad as you think,” she says with a smile. “I can share if he can.”

“Yeah, but–”

“Did I ever tell you about Aunt Angela?” Sharon interrupts, placing her coffee mug on the marble table. “See, Aunt Peggy… well, she was in love with Uncle Dan, AND with Auntie Angie. So she kept both of them.”

Steve is shocked at this, and she can tell. So she just smiles. “I love you, Steve Rogers. And you love Bucky. So I love him too.” She reaches up and kisses his forehead. “We all deserve a little happiness now and then.”

***

Three years later, Steve has finally come home from the war that he left for in 1941.

The Titan is defeated, Rhodes and Natasha are leading the Avengers, and Tony and Steve are finally, FINALLY able to retire to be with their families. Tony has a bouncing baby girl. He names her Virginia, after her mother. Steve, meanwhile, goes home to Sharon and Bucky and, thanks to Doctor Strange and Adam Warlock, everything is going to be all right.

Sharon’s not always there, of course. She still has her job to look out for, all the missions and the jobs, and Steve and Bucky sometimes worry whether she’ll make it home. Bucky starts working as a self-defense instructor at a battered women’s shelter, where he rapidly finds a home he never knew he could have.

While Steve?

Steve gets what he always wanted.

Steve gets to make art, and live with the two most wonderful, most terrific, most _beautiful_ people he’s ever had in his life.


End file.
